On June 24, 2009, Philadelphia's Mayor Michael Nutter held a press conference at Temple University's Technology Center to launch Work Ready Philadelphia's Green Jobs Initiatives for Philadelphia Youth. The program represents one tier of the city's use of federal stimulus funding to foster the development of economic opportunities for young people through growing a green economy.

ITSRG is proud to be a part of the Green Jobs Initiative through sponsoring the BITS Summer Intensive Program 2009 this year from July 6 - August 14, 2009 on Temple University's Main Campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

BITS 09 will involve over 150 Philadelphia youth aged 14 - 24 an opportunity to enhance their geographic knowledge and computer, Internet, social media, graphic arts, and research skills in a university environment through two program models - an internship experience and a service learning project. Both will enable youth to enhance their digital skills, which are increasingly in demand in a college and in the workforce.

The service-learning project will engage youth to work with Temple students and volunteers with the Sustainable Trails iniative of the Friends of the Wissahickon Park. Service learners will document the multiple ways the Wissahickon section of Fairmount Park is used by humans and wildlife. Service learners will work in small teams supervised by Temple University students and park volunteers to develop data sets related to decisions about where to place markers on new trails. They will also assist with the creation of a multimedia project that reflects the park.

Service learners will also use the datasets they create to develop team projects consisting of online maps and blogs that illustrate how competing uses of the park are balanced. Students will gain skills and practical experiences with Google Earth and Google Maps, blog applications and multimedia techniques to share the information they gather with a Web audience.

BITS 09 participants placed in internship experiences will work in small terms at either Temple University's Main Campus or with ITSRG community partners. Experiences will be designed to provide interns with career readiness skills and hands-on activities that enhance their knowledge of environment problems and research.

Interns will be placed in the Sbarro Health Research Organization's Digilab, the Social Science Data Library, the Department of Civil Engineering's Alaska Valdez project, the Blockson Collection, ITSRG, the Office of Sustainability, the Fu

Throughout the summer, the Interns will work in teams to develop a web-based multimedia project that reflects their internship experience. Interns will gain skills around group project work, website design, and multimedia applications related to environmental problems and research.

In addition, all summer intensive students will attend regular workshops focused building on college and work ready skills.

This program is made possible with generous support from Philadelphia Youth Network through the Mayor's Green Jobs Initiative and through Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development.

Congratulations on another summer of bITS! Looks like you have developed a number of new partners. I will be around Temple for a while, before moving on to Long Island to join Carla. She has accepted a position at SUNY Stony Brook.Mike